Let me address myself to you who are born of God. If
you are a believer, if you arechild of
God, you are now righteous before God, justified, holy, forgiven of all sin,
and sanctified in Christ. God calls you a saint, one who is holy, sanctified by
his grace.

But we were not always in
such a blessed condition; and we must never forget that fact. We are admonished
by our God to remember who and what we were when God saved us by his grace. We
must never forget who and what we are by nature. "Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek
the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit
whence ye are digged” (Isa. 51:1). In 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, the Holy Spirit
pointedly reminds us of these things and tells us what God has done for us in
Christ, by his almighty grace.

"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of
God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor
effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous,
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of
God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but
ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our
God."

We are all unrighteous by
nature. Both our evil hearts and our evil deeds made us unfit for heaven's
eternal glory. Some of were adulterers, some were drunkards, some were thieves,
some were covetous, etc. But we were all guilty. We were all born with the
plague of sin in our hearts. Sin was our natural course of life. Sin was the
path in which we chose to walk day by day, until God intervened to save us by
his grace. We were nothing but sin. We did nothing but sin. There was not one
particle of goodness in us, by which we might be commend ourselves to God. This
is what we were and where we were when God saved us by his grace. See that you
never forget it (Eph. 2:1-3).

And this is what we are by
nature still (Matt. 15:19). There is no evil recorded in the Word of God, or
written upon the pages of human history, the seed of which is not in your heart
and mine by nature. The hearts of all men and women are cesspools of iniquity,
in which the loathsome monster, sin, produces its many offspring. We are
constantly reminded of this painful fact throughout the Book of God. Why? I am
sure there are at least four reasons:

l. To humble us and keep us
from pride and self-righteousness to which we are so naturally inclined (1 Cor. 4:7). There is no
difference between any of God's elect and the most vile reprobate in the world,
except the difference made by the grace of God and the blood of Christ.

2. To honor, exalt and magnify
the grace of God in Christ (2 Cor. 1:26-31). By the grace of God we are what
we are. Grace chose us. Grace redeemed us. Grace called us. Grace preserves us.

3. To encourage sinners to come
to Christ, with all their sins, trusting him alone for salvation and eternal
life
(Isa. 1:18). Look what grace has done for so many. Christ is willing to save
any sinner who simply trusts him. What he has done for e, he can do for you.

4. To inspire in our hearts the
intense zeal and ardent love for Christ our great Savior so richly deserves (Luke 7:47). Surely, men
and women who have experienced such rich, abundant, saving grace will love and
serve such a great Savior, with willing hearts.